Monday, June 28, 1999
Church will rebuild after collapse
BY ERIN GIBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Janice Morton sings with New St. Paul Baptist Church choir.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
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Members of a West End church that collapsed Tuesday gathered Sunday in a funeral chapel, thanking God for their lives and promising to rebuild their church on the same site.
“We're going to rise up,” Pastor Don Fairbanks told more than 300 New St. Paul Baptist Church members who sat shoulder-to-shoulder inside the chapel at Joseph R. Garr Funeral Home, West End. It was the church's first service since the collapse.
“The Lord put us in the West End,” he said. “We're going to stay here.”
Pastor Fairbanks told his congregation — some standing for lack of seats — the Lord was working through New St. Paul to rebuild the community, and the church would do it.
“Yes, Lord,” several in the congregation replied.
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HOW TO HELP
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Donations to help rebuild New St. Paul Baptist Church can be made in the church's name at any Franklin Savings and Loan location.
The church also needs 300 folding chairs to hold services at the now-vacant Beulah Baptist Church, 1047 Linn St., West End, until it can rebuild.
For information, call 721-0163.
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Pastor Fairbanks said he hoped New St. Paul could move within three weeks into the vacant Beulah Baptist Church building at 1047 Linn St. nearby and stay there until its own church is rebuilt. That churchhasn't been occupied since the Beulah congregation moved into a new building in Roselawn a year ago, Pastor Fairbanks said.
Deacon James Moreland said the collapse was just a sign from God that the church needed to wait — to be patient in building a new house for the Lord.
The church had commissioned a team to demolish the building next door and make way for an addition to its aging sanctuary. That demolition work may have contributed to the church's collapse, city officials have said.
“God didn't tear down that building,” Mr. Moreland said. “He wouldn't tear down his own house. Man did that.”
“Last week, we had our building,” Pastor Fairbanks told his congregation Sunday. “This week, there is no wall. But there is a body. We are the body of Christ.
“The temple does not reside in a building. The temple resides in people.”
Church members rejoiced in that statement. They clapped hands. Some danced. Most sang. Many grabbed paper fans to wave themselves cool in the little chapel that grew increasingly hot.
But no one mourned what a week ago was the biggest loss they had experienced as a church: the near-total collapse of their sanctuary. No one was injured or was inside the building when the entire roof and one wall collapsed shortly before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
In the funeral chapel Sunday, the choir stood, singing from where a casket could have sat.
Together as a church, members stayed, prayed and sang for three hours in the funeral chapel. Their prayers were rife with hope and thanksgiving.
Many at convention
Some praised God for a weeklong Baptist convention in Louisville, Ky., where many were Tuesday night, when the church collapsed. If it wasn't for the convention, they would have attended their regular Tuesday night Bible study classes inside the church.
Instead, Pastor Fairbanks and about 40 church members were at the convention eating dinner when a phone call came in from the church secretary.
They didn't know how bad the collapse was then, said church member Donna Jones. Now they do. And they know they could have been under the rubble.
“God saw fit to save our lives,” Mrs. Jones said. Includ ing the life of Sonia Edwards, who was on her way to choir practice at the church when it collapsed. She saw the devastated building.
Devastation a shock
“I just cried, and I just bellowed out,” Mrs. Edwards said.
She attended church Sunday with her husband, Jarvis Edwards, and her 14-year-old daughter, Dominique.
“I am so blessed,” Mrs. Edwards said. “There could have been a lot of devastation to a lot of families.”
Church members will meet again 7 p.m. Wednesday at New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine to pray and talk about moving and rebuilding. Pastor Fairbanks said he wants to start rebuilding in eight months.
“We're going to build God a house,” he said. “Something magnificent — to the glory of God.”
The congregation replied: “Thank you, Lord. Amen.”
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